Taiwanese Cuisine - Typical Dishes

Typical Dishes

• jiû-hî keⁿ (Chinese: 魷魚羹; pinyin: yóuyúgēng) - thickened soup with cuttlefish covered in fish paste.
• ô-á-chian (蚵仔煎, kèzǎijiān) - Oyster omelet made with eggs, oysters, tapioca starch, and Garland chrysanthemum leaves. It has a soft, sticky texture, and is eaten with a sweet and mildly spicy sauce, topped with cilantro. This dish is very common in night markets as it is the most popular snack in Taiwan.
• ô-á mī-sòaⁿ (蚵仔麵線, kèzǎi miànxiàn), or oyster vermicelli, a thickened soup containing small oysters and Chinese vermicelli.
• o· bí-ko (烏米糕 wūmǐgāo, me shai mǐxuè, hēimǐgāo ) - a dish made from pork blood and rice. It is usually cut into a rectangular piece and served on a stick, dipped in soy sauce, with the option of adding hot sauce, then topped with powdered peanut and cilantro.
• ló·-bah-pn̄g (滷肉飯, lǔròu fàn) - minced, cubed, or ground fatty pork, stewed in soy sauce and spices, then served on rice.
• tōa-tn̂g pau sió-tn̂g (大腸包小腸, dàcháng bāo xiǎocháng) – small sausage wrapped in big sausage. A Taiwanese snack, common in night market. A grilled Taiwanese sweet pork sausage wrapped in a grilled salty sticky rice sausage. Usually wrapped with garlic and basil. Customer can also choose the flavor they want, such as black pepper, garlic, chili, butter, and chocolate.
• sanbeiji (三杯雞, sānbēijī) - a chicken dish which literally translates as "three cups chicken", named because the sauce is made of a cup of rice wine, a cup of sesame oil, and a cup of soy sauce. Alternatively, the sauce can also be made of a cup each of rice wine, sugar, and soy sauce.
• chhài-pó͘-nn̄g (菜脯卵, càifǔluǎn) - Taiwanese Style preserved white radish omelet.
• koe-á bah (瓜仔肉) - Steamed pork patty with Taiwanese Style pickled cucumber.
• (麻辣鍋, málàguō)-Spicy hotpot. It is becoming more and more popular, especially in Taipei. The soup of this hotpot includes lots of Chinese herbs and other special materials. People can cook what they want with this soup. The taste is very spicy, but this kind of hotpot can help you keep warm and feel good in the winter.
• Eel noodles (鱔魚意麵, shànyú yìmiàn)- Rice eel with Yi mein in a starch thickened sweet and sour soup.
• A-gei (淡水阿給, dànshuǐ āgěi) - fried tofu stuffed with cooked cellophane noodles and covered with surimi
• Iron eggs (鐵蛋, tiědàn) - Eggs stewed in soy sauce until they are flavourful and chewy in texture.

Vegetarian restaurants are commonplace with a wide variety of dishes, mainly due to the influence of Buddhism and other syncretistic religions like I-Kuan Tao.

There is a type of outdoor barbecue called khòng-iô (焢窯, hōngyáo). To barbecue in this manner, one first builds a hollow pyramid up with dirt clods. Next, charcoal or wood is burnt inside until the temperature inside the pyramid is very high (the dirt clods should be glowing red). The ingredients to be cooked, such as taro, yam, or chicken, are placed in cans, and the cans are placed inside the pyramid. Finally, the pyramid is toppled over the food until cooked.

Many non-dessert dishes are usually considered snacks, not entrees; that is, they have a similar status to Cantonese dim sum or Spanish tapas. Such dishes are usually only slightly salted, with lots of vegetables along with the main meat or seafood item.